Stolen Spotlight
by kipler
Summary: Lily is home for the holidays, hoping to spend time with her family. But Petunia is up to her tricks and forces Lily to come to her school dance. Everyone starts paying attention to Lily instead of her, and as always with these sisters, it doesnt end well


**AN: Hey guys! I've been working on this for a while, but it looks like I got it done just in time for the year to end. Basically, in this story, Lily is forced to come along to Petunia's school dance, dragging her best friend, Hestia, along with her. As always with these two sisters, chaos ensues. Petunia's crush is talking to Lily, Hestia is making everyone laugh, and Petunia and her group of friends are pushed out of their spotlight. Petunia is left feeling bitter and jealous as usual. I'd just like to thank Philosophyluver for being my faithfu beta. I really doubt this story would be finished without her. Whenever I needed an opinion, she was there to give it to me. When I had a question, she could answer it. So this is dedicated to her. Anyway, please enjoy this story as much as I enjoyed writing it! Happy new year! **

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><p>I hated how glamorous Lily looked in everything. Really, if she was wearing a trash bag she could have made the cover of the most trendy fashion magazine, and then everybody would have been wearing trash bags to look just like her.<p>

Well, at least it wasn't quite that bad at that moment. At least she was wearing actual clothes. She was wearing a green and yellow striped long sleeve shirt that was much too big for her but somehow it looked like it fit her perfectly. Her pants were also much too big, they were khaki and she had to roll them up quite a lot. To be honest, I wasn't even sure they were her pants. That combination shouldn't have looked good at all, but somehow it worked for her. She had on her red converse, and her beautiful dark red hair was down in a thick curtain. It was obvious she hadn't done anything to style it, which would have looked socially unacceptable on me, but on her it just completed the casual look.

She was in the living room lounging on the couch with her feet on the table, and stuffing her face with popcorn, one of her favorite foods that she said she didn't get at school. I remembered smiling smugly at that statement because it showed that her wonderful magical school wasn't all that perfect.

But then, I frowned because she should have looked like a total slob with what she was doing, but she made it look dainty. I frowned even more as I thought about how long it would take to wash the table later. She probably didn't even think about that stuff anymore. With her stupid ability, she could probably clean the whole world within seconds.

Shaking my head, I walked out of the shadows and into the room. I had a task to do. I was being stupid when I told my friends that Lily would be actually coming home for the Christmas holidays this year. Really, my friends were horrible people and I didn't like them all that much, but it was better than being lonely. So when I told them this, they remembered that three years ago Lily was one of the biggest losers in school, and they wanted to see how she'd turned out. I had tried to argue with them, telling them that she would only ruin the dance and what would a thirteen-year-old want to do with a high school dance anyway? But they were adamant I should invite her, and my friends weren't the kind of people you disobey. The real reason I didn't want her to come is that there was no denying she was beautiful, and I didn't want them to know.

I sat down in the arm chair across from her, and she took a break from her snack to look up at me, smile and nod, and then she went back to eating like nothing had ever happened. I cleared my throat to get her attention, and she looked up at me once more.

"You have to come to my school dance tonight." I told her simply.

"What? Why would I want to go to your dance?" She asked, looking confused.

"My friends want to see you." I explained.

"No they don't! They hate me!" There was no fooling Lily.

"They haven't seen you in three years, so they want to see how you've turned out."

"I doubt that. But even if I did go, what would I wear? I don't have any Muggle clothes!"

"I'm sure you have something. And it's not a choice you have to go."

She thought for a moment, going over her options to see if she had any way to get out of her predicament. Finding none, she spoke again. "Alright, I'll go, but on one condition. You say it's because of your friends that I'm going to this, so I get to bring Hestia, my friend."

Hestia, if I remembered correctly, was Lily's best friend. She was one of her kind, a freak! "No! One freak at the dance is enough! I'm not going to bring two and be responsible for ruining the night!"

"Then I'm not going." She said simply.

"You have to!" I nearly screamed in response.

"No I don't. I could tell Mom I want to stay home and then you can't force me."

She was right, and I was stuck. She knew that if my "friends" said I had to bring her, I had to find some way to do it, and if she told Mom she wouldn't have to come. I had no choice but to bring her freaky little friend too.

I sighed. "Alright, but if either of you mess up the dance in any way, I will make your life hell!"

"Great! I'll just go owl her!" She made no indication that she had noticed my threat. She galloped up the stairs to her room where her freaky owl was probably waiting for her. I hated that thing.

I flopped back down on the couch. This would be an interesting night…

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

When it was time to leave, Lily came downstairs wearing an outfit of a red collared shirt with some sort of official looking seal on the breast pocket, a white cotton skirt that hung strait to her mid-thigh, and tan boots with fur on the inside. To be honest, even though that outfit was not the best, it looked amazing on her. Even the red shirt looked fine. Her hair was up in a loose bun, and though it should have clashed horribly with the shirt, it didn't.

"Like my Christmas colors, Tuney?" She asked. "It is the Christmas dance after all." The boots were probably meant to represent gold. I didn't bother telling her that not many people actually considered this to be different from other dances.

"Where's your green?" I asked, trying to look disapproving. I didn't want Lily to know that even though her dark red hair that was up in a bun clashed horribly with the shirt, she could pull it off.

"Right here!" She replied happily, pointing at her green eyes. It appeared that she was also wearing green eye shadow, and even green mascara to compensate for the red shirt.

"Makeup?" I scoffed at her.

She looked defensive. "I am thirteen years old, I can wear makeup if I want to. It's just eye makeup." She looked me over. "You're fifteen, only two years older, and you're wearing makeup, even if it is a bit…much."

I rolled my eyes, as she looked over my outfit. I was wearing a very short pink plaid skirt, a white tank-top, and a short pink denim jacket that ended at my waist. I had on pink sandals with manageable 4 centimeter heels, and my colorless blond hair was down, but the front of it was pulled into two small braids which wrapped around my head and met in the back. I had made my skin creamy and smooth, my eyelashes dark and long, and lots of pink eye shadow surrounded my ugly dry dirt eyes.

"Er—Tuney? Where are your Christmas colors?" Lily asked as my mom told us to get in the car.

"Pink is a shade of red." I said off-handly as I walked out the door. Then, turning around with new energy, I said: "Do _not_ call me Tuney. My name is Petunia."

When we arrived at the school, I could tell that the dance was in the gym by the flashing light coming through the windows. We got out of the car, and Lily immediately ran off to a girl who was waiting with her arms crossed away from all the other kids. She was obviously younger than the rest of us 15-year-olds so I knew she must be the famous Hestia.

She had on a pair of faded blue jeans, and black leather winter boots with flat soles and laces. They both looked very old and worn out, and I could tell that these were some of her favorite articles of clothing. She was also wearing a red collared shirt, but her hair was in a thick, side braid, coming over her shoulder and resting casually on her chest. Her hair. It would have been pitch black at any other time of day, but at the moment, the last rays of the sunset were shining on it so it had a gorgeous reddish-brown tint. It was so shiny and smooth and the color made her stand out from everybody around her. Even from here I could see that her eyes were a mysterious and intelligent gray, and even though he wasn't wearing any makeup, she was absolutely gorgeous. Within five seconds of the two talking, Lily was laughing hysterically and so I knew she must be incredibly funny.

I sighed and walked off to find my friends. What had I done? I had just brought two gorgeous girls to my dance! They didn't even go here, but I could guarantee all the guys would go for them.

Finally, I found my friends. Charlene, Sophia, Ruth, Amelia and Yvonne all thought themselves the prettiest girls in school. You could tell that just by looking at them, they all had on varying degrees of incredibly short skirts and tight low cut shirts. My skirt went just a few inches past my butt and it was the longest. Ruth's could have been classified as a belt. Charlene and Yvonne had the longest skirts after me, but still I wondered how their parents let them leave the house. They were also the nicest of my five friends (though that wasn't saying much), so I considered them my best friends, even if they weren't true friends I could tell anything to, like the ones Lily had.

Sophia looked up and saw me approaching. "Petunia! We've been waiting forever! Where have you been?"

"Nice to see you too, Soph." No one laughed. "I was arguing with my sister so I got held up a bit."

Their eyes visibly lit up at the mention of Lily. "Is she here?" Asked Amelia.

"Yeah." I sighed. They all gave various victorious looks. "But," I started and they all looked a bit worried. "She wouldn't come unless I let her bring a friend so her best friend Hestia is here."

"That loser has a friend? When did that happen?" Demanded Ruth.

"In the last three years, I guess, at that school." I answered the obvious.

"Well? Where is she?" Asked Yvonne, looking around.

"I'm not sure. When we got out of the car she saw her friend so I left them to find you guys."

"Well, why don't we just try to have fun by ourselves until we see them?" Charlene suggested.

"Sounds good. Let's go in, girls!" We all joined hands and walked through the doors to have fun while we could.

We planted ourselves in the middle of the decorated gym and started to dance a bit like we normally did. We talked and laughed, and I had almost forgotten that Lily was even here until Ruth started complaining.

"Why haven't any boys come over? We're usually surrounded by now!" She complained.

Looking around, I realized she was right. We had been here for about 45 minutes, but no one had asked us to dance yet. All the boys who normally hung out with us were still in their little groups talking quietly, or actually rather loudly so they could be heard over the music. One boy pointed to the corner, and we saw why they weren't over with us. My friends mouths dropped open.

It was what I had been dreading. They had spotted Lily and Hestia sitting together laughing in the corner. "Is that—Lily?" Asked Sophia.

I nodded solemnly.

"What? No! That's impossible!" Amelia nearly shouted.

I turned my palms up to show that I had nothing to do with this and no idea how to fix it.

"When did she get pretty?" Charlene asked quietly.

We all turned to look at her, Ruth and Sophia looking furious, Yvonne and Amelia looking as worried as I felt.

"In the last three years, I guess." I answered, shrugging and trying to look like I didn't care as much as I did.

Ruth snapped. "I'm going over there. She needs to be put in her—"

"No!" I grabbed her arm to stop her.

"No?" She asked, skepticism and fury on her face.

"It's just—well—Lets just watch first, yeah?" I couldn't say _she could hurt you with her freak powers. _

"Alright." She allowed grudgingly, crossing her arms and glaring at the two younger girls.

We silently watched them laugh for a while, Hestia was making violent hand motions and Lily was clutching her stomach. I wondered what she could be telling her.

Neither of them seemed to notice our glares, but they did notice when one of the boys from the most popular group came walking over. In fact, that was Ian Ivey, who had looks to rival Hestia. Neat dark brown hair with a hint of red in the sunlight, smoky grey eyes, a smile that could light up New York City, and my future husband. So why was he talking to _her? _

We watched as he introduced himself, and then pointed with his thumb over his shoulder toward his group, most likely inviting the two younger girls to join them. They both gave him apologetic smiles and shook their heads, pointing to the ground where they were sitting, probably saying that they were going to stay right there. So instead of taking no for an answer, he sat down right next to them, and Hestia started telling her story again and in no time even Ian was in hysterics. As he threw back his head in laugher, he made eye contact with some of his group and beckoned them over. He introduced them to Lily and Hestia, and filled them in on what they had missed. It must have been incredibly funny, because soon they were laughing their heads off too.

At this point, even I snapped. "I think we should go over there now." No one needed to be told twice.

When we got close enough to hear Hestia shouting her story over the music, I stopped them so we could listen before we moved in.

"—So I couldn't bloody well tell her that I had set of fireworks in their room so I was like, 'Well, Madam Pomfrey, Peter tripped and fell into the common room fire, and then when we were bringing him to you, he tripped again and fell down several flights of stairs!' And she bought it! She said, 'Yes, yes, that would happen.' I guess since it's her first year she hasn't started to mistrust the students yet. And James and Sirius were laughing so hard that they didn't even try to get me in trouble!"

Everyone stopped to laugh for a minute, then Ian said "Where is this school of yours? Can you sign me up?"

Lily laughed a bit more. "Sorry, no. You have to be super smart to get in." At least she wasn't telling them all how much of a freak she was.

"What? Are you saying that I'm not smart?" He teased them.

"No, I'm sure you are!" Lily clarified quickly. "It's just that Hogwarts isn't a school you apply to. They do a nationwide search for new people every year, and they either ask you to come or you can't come."

"And they only accept new people for first year. You're a bit too old now." Hestia finished.

"Ah, its exclusive, yes?" Ian understood.

"You could say that." Lily agreed.

"So, why are you two girls here?" asked Tyler Thompson. He was another rather attractive male, with bleach blonde hair, pale blue-ish grey eyes, and pale skin.

"She brought me." Hestia responded quickly, nudging Lily. She looked at Tyler for a moment, then said, "You know, you could be related to one of our friends, Marlene."

"Ty in girl form? I want to meet that!" Martin Roberts exclaimed. "She must be hot!" He wasn't so bad looking himself. He had strawberry blonde hair, sea green eyes, and freckles covering his face.

The guys laughed a bit while Tyler blushed.

"But, you know, she is gorgeous." Lily told them.

"Seriously! She could be a super model but she says she'd rather be a heal— a doctor." Hestia added.

"Oh! Hot and smart! Lead me to her!"

They laughed a bit more.

"So, why are you here?" Ian asked Lily.

"My sister brought me."

"Who's your sister? I can't think of anyone that looks like you."

"Petunia." Lily answered simply, pointing at me and my friends.

Well, that didn't go as I had hoped. We were supposed to make a good entrance, not be caught spying on them.

"Hey, Ian." I said sheepishly.

He nodded, but was looking back and forth between me and Lily.

"You guys don't look anything alike!"

Honestly, that was a bit insulting. "She has my dad's hair and my mom's eyes. I have my mom's hair and my dad's eyes." I told him stiffly.

Then, something seemed to click in his head. "Lily Evans?" He asked her.

She nodded.

"I remember you!" A chorus of "Yeah's!" and "Me too's!" and grunts came from all the other boys.

"Wow, you look different." Tyler commented.

Lily shrugged. "Not really. No one noticed me before though."

"Yeah, you were just Petunia's freaky little sister." Martin agreed.

Lily was trying not to glare. Ian sensed the tension and changed the subject.

"So tell us more about that school of yours. You just left in year six and nobody knew where you went!"

"Well, Hogwarts is a school for people with special abilities. It's a boarding school in Scotland, and it's my favorite place in the whole world."

"So you go there too, Hestia?"

"Yeah. That's where we met, on the first night of first year. Actually, I was just there. I'm spending the holidays there, but I left to come here."

"You just left?" Martin asked, astonished.

"Yeah. I'll go back when this is over." This was obviously no big deal.

"You just left school." Martin clarified.

"Yeah. I just walked out the front doors and caught the bus."

"Are you allowed to do that?" Tyler asked.

"Technically, no. But I don't see what the problem is. I told Marly where I was going, and if anyone is looking for me, she can tell them. It's not like I'm just wandering around. There are plenty of people to 'supervise' me and I'm with Lily. She's responsible. Dumbledore's basically already told her that's she's gonna be the house prefect."

Ruth had had enough. "Perfect prefect Lily. Blah, blah, blah. I honestly don't see the big deal here. She's just a little freak," She said loudly to Charlene, in a way that was obviously meant to be heard by all.

Everyone stopped and looked at her, astonished, except for Hestia, who stood up looking furious.

"You know, I think you might be the freak here." She stood right in front of Ruth, her fists clenched.

"Really? I'm not the one wearing matching shirts with my friend. Nerd." She straitened up to her full height, making her a good six inches taller than her opponent, but I had no doubt that Hestia could take her. Ruth acted tough, but she was all bark and no bite. On the other hand, I could see the lean muscles in Hestia's arm rippling. She was one of those people who, though slender looking, probably had surprising strength. I had no doubt that she was an athlete. She probably played that freak sport, Quimmitch, or something like that.

"Matching shirts?" Ian asked, clearly trying to avert the coming fight. He looked at Lily's shirt. The atmosphere grew slightly awkward when everyone realized at the same moment that he was staring at her chest. "What is that seal for?" he covered quickly.

"Gryffindor." She answered quickly, putting a hand on Hestia's shoulder and firmly pulling her away from my friend.

"What's Gryffindor?" He asked again, clearly trying to carry on the conversation.

"It's the house we're both in at school. There are four houses: Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, and Slytherin."

"Gryffindor is the best house. _She _would be a filthy Slytherin!" Hestia spat.

"Gryffindor and Slytherin don't get along…" Lily explained sheepishly. Her hand tightened on Hestia's shoulder.

"Alright, maybe we should go." I said forcefully.

"You know, I think she's right." Lily agreed readily. "Well, bye everyon—"

"LILY FlOWER!" Someone screamed.

"HESSY-BESSY!" Someone else added.

Suddenly, both Lily and Jess had been knocked backwards, and were now engulfed in big, bear hugs.

Lily looked surprised for a moment, but then, she looked at the black haired boy with glasses who was hugging her and pushed him away roughly.

"James! What are you bloody doing here?" She hissed angrily.

Hestia was being hugged by another black haired boy. She looked furious too. In a way that completely suited the personality I had already seen her to have, she violently jerked her leg up and kneed the boy in the crotch. He let out a string of language that would have made his mother proud, then fell to the ground moaning. She looked rather pleased with herself.

The first boy, who was James, was smiling widely. "We came to see you, Lilykins!"

"How in Merlin's name did you know I was here?" If looks could kill…

"Marly told us." He seemed to be oblivious to the girls' anger.

Lily groaned. "Of course she did! She can't stop flirting with you guys for five bloody seconds!"

"Er—excuse me?" Ian asked timidly.

Hestia whipped around to face him. "What do you want?" She seemed to regret her out burst immediately. "Sorry." She muttered.

"Quite alright." He smiled reassuringly. "I just wanted to know who these boys are." He used the word boy, like a derogatory word, calling them young, ignorant and stupid without actually saying it. However, he had never had any problem with Lily and Hestia being younger than him.

The fury returned to Hestia's face. "These boys are James Potter and Sirius Black. The menaces of Gryffindor tower."

"Oh! Are they those boys from the story you were telling us? So they go to that school?"

"Unfortunately."

"There would be four of us, but Pete is still in the hospital wing and Remus stayed with him. You'd better watch your back, Hess." James told her.

"It's all up to you, James." Sirius squeaked from his position on the floor. "I'm going to be in the hospital wing too when we get back." He was another funny one, but neither Lily nor Hestia seemed to be amused at the moment.

"You shouldn't have come." Lily told them angrily. "Dumbledore'll be so mad!"

"Who's Dumbledore?" Asked Tyler.

"Headmaster." James replied quickly. "But why shouldn't I have come? Hess is here."

"Yeah, but all the teachers know that she won't do anything stupid!"

"And you're saying we will?" Asked Sirius, finally getting up, but wincing as he did so.

"Yes!" The girls bellowed at the same time.

The boys feigned hurt. "That was harsh, ladies." Sirius told them.

"I can't believe you would think so badly of us." James pouted.

"Shut up or I won't just be thinking badly." Hestia threatened.

"Oh! Fiesty!" Sirius teased her. I realized that me and my friends were just sitting there watching, but I did nothing to get involved. A time for that would come, but Lily's social life was entertaining.

"So!" Said Martin loudly. "Are these my competition for your friend Marlene?" He asked jokingly, but all four turned on him. James and Sirius looked fiercely protective, while Hestia and Lily just looked annoyed.

"You want to date Marly, hmm?" Sirius asked, folding his arms to show off his rather large muscles. He was obviously another Quimmich player.

"Why?" Martin laughed nervously, knowing that he had obviously said the wrong thing. "Is she going out with one of you?"

"No, but she's like a sister to us." James stared him down. "You'll have to prove yourself." Even though Martin was two years older and quite a lot taller, he looked worried. These freak kids all seemed to be very athletic.

"To go further on your question though," Sirius continued, "I'm dating Hessy, and James is going out with Lils."

As if they had planned in, both girls stepped forward and slapped them. Ian held back a chuckle.

"Alright! Fine! Fine!" Sirius shouted, rubbing his cheek. From the sound of it, Hestia had a pretty good slap. That didn't surprise me.

"They know we like them!" James shouted to no one in particular. A slight frown appeared on Ian's face. I started to process that. If they really meant that, I couldn't believe their courage. Who liked who were the most closely guarded secrets at my school, and these boys said it like it was a common fact.

"I'll go date Marly if you want!" Shouted Sirius. "The sister status can change!"

"And I would be perfectly happy with Dorcas!" James agreed. They were trying to make them jealous.

"Please do. They actually like you." Hestia said off-handedly.

This was really not going the way I wanted it too. The fight was starting to draw a crowd, and I got to watch Lily turn down some of the most gorgeous boys I had ever laid eyes on. Ian clearly already liked one of them, I couldn't tell which though. It was insane how jealous I was. I had to step in. I had to embarrass them somehow.

"So, Lily! Whose pants were you wearing earlier today?" I put on a friendly voice.

"Sorry, what?" She asked.

"When I told you you had to come to the dance! You were wearing those huge khakis that obviously weren't yours." I started to feel like this was one of the stupidest things I had ever said, but the look on Lily's face reassured me.

She blushed. So did James. I had figured out who the pants belonged to. Sirius and Hestia, however, were guffawing. All the anger vanished from their faces, and for once, they seemed united on something: the hilarity of the situation.

"James was wondering where those pants went!" Sirius gasped between tremors.

Ian didn't look happy about Lily wearing James's pants. "Why did you have his pants?" He asked tentatively.

"Oh, well—he gave them to me, and then they were comfortable so I kept them." Lily explained quietly.

"That is _not _what happened!" Hestia giggled.

"Care to tell us then?" Sophia looked annoyed.

"Well, you see—" Sirius started, but then Hestia interrupted him.

"We were all in—er—Chemistry class, and that idiot Professor Slughorn—"

Now Lily interrupted Hestia. "Hey! He's actually really nice!"

"Whatever!" Hestia told her. "So anyway, our stupid chemistry professor paired Lily and James up, which is never a good idea. And so, when they were mixing together all these dangerous chemicals, James knocked over the pot, which he said was by accident—"

"Which it wasn't—OW!" Sirius shouted. James had elbowed him hard in the ribs.

"So he spilled it all over Lily's skirt," Hestia said more loudly, "And it started to dissolve. So he shouts, 'Oh no!' and rips off his pants and hands them to Lily before her skirt is completely gone. Then he runs out of the room screaming, so everyone can see his Gryffindor boxers!"

"And then she never gave the pants back!" Shouted James accusingly. He was still beet red, but he was trying to make the most of this embarrassing situation.

Martin and Tyler were in hysterics. Ian was laughing too, but not as hard. It was starting to become obvious he liked Lily.

Even though I had embarrassed Lily quite a lot, she was recovering and laughing along. I had to do something else.

"You know, James, Sirius." I got their attention. "Lily talks about you a lot!"

Identical mischievous smirks appeared on their faces. "Do you, Lilykins?" James asked. "That's just wonderful!"

The smile faded off Lily's face and she flashed me one of the most menacing glares I had ever seen. "When I do, it's only me ranting about the latest stupid thing you did to the Slytherins, or about how McGonagall kicks your arse when you're late to class.

"Besides, it's really quite hard to tell the firework story without mentioning you." Hestia added.

It was amazing how fast the topic changed. Everything was back to normal.

"Story? It's not a story! You could have destroyed Pete's face!" Sirius was fiercely protective of his friend.

"Peter's a tough kid. Besides, you can't deny it was funny. You almost killed yourself laughing."

"Well Pete wasn't laughing, but he was almost killed anyway!" Sirius insisted.

"Hestia told us what happened, but I missed the beginning." Tyler said.

"It was six in the morning, on the first day of the holiday, and Hestia creeps into our room, and throws a bunch of lit fireworks that start whizzing around. And basically, one ends up in Pete's nose and goes off!" James waved his hands in the air.

The boys were guffawing. Charlene and Amelia stuffed their fists into their mouths to prevent any giggles from escaping. Even I had to admit it was pretty funny.

"It's not bloody funny!" Sirius shouted, even though he was smirking himself. "I was going to sleep past lunch, and instead, I had to take a bloody-faced Pete to the hospital wing! And now he and Remus bloody can't be here because he's still stuck in bed!"

Ruth rolled her eyes. "You guys are naïve and immature. My life is _far _more exciting than that."

Hestia, who already hated her turned and questioned her. "Would you like to tell us what's more exciting than a firework going off in someone's nose?"

Ruth hesitated. "I am the most popular person in school, and all they guys love me, and I'm really rich, and I can do whatever I want. I don't have to sleep in the same building as my teachers." In all honesty, we had listened to her complain for hours about how her daddy wouldn't let her go to boarding school, so that insult wasn't tricking anyone who knew her.

Even my friends struggled to remain strait faced. Sirius snorted loudly.

"Your life seems wonderful…" James humored her.

"You know though," Sirus started a story that would probably go nowhere good. "We have this Professor, McGonagall's her name, and she's pretty strict. But me and James are trying to…loosen her up." Everyone cringed. "So basically, being locked in the same building with her all day and night isn't all that bad. Even when she gets mad, the schools pretty big, and we know it better than anyone. There are plenty of places to hide."

I could see Ruth's face growing splotchy. She was beginning to get all flustered. Knowing her like I did, I was one hundred percent sure she was going to blame this on me the next time I saw her. So I decided to end it before it could get any worse.

"Lily, we're going." I walked forward, grabbed her arm, and then continued walking.

"Wait—What?" She spluttered, tripping behind me. She couldn't break my grip.

I could feel everyone staring at us. Ian stepped forward. "Wait, Lily! Hestia!"

Hestia was following us. She didn't break pace until we were outside. Then, she grabbed Lily's other arm, and yanked her out of my grip.

The two stood side-by-side, giving me identical questioning looks with their arms crossed.

"What do you think you're doing, Tuney?"

"Petunia!" I shouted. "Call me Petunia! You were ruining my dance, so now we have to go! Stay here!"

I turned on my heel and went back into the school, toward the office to use the phone there. Once my mom had agreed to come get us, I hung up and went back outside. Lily and Hestia were still there, as well as James and Sirius too.

"James, Sirius. Listen to me. We have to go!" Hestia had her hands braced against Sirius's shoulders. Then, she surprised everyone by reaching down into Sirius's pocket. His eyes lit up briefly as she reached down, but morphed into disappointment as she pulled her hand out, holding a long, wooden, stick. She walked over to the curb and thrust the want out over the parking lot. Almost immediately, a large, triple-decker purple bus appeared out of nowhere.

"Why'd you use my wand?" Sirius complained, as Hestia threw it back at him.

"So I don't get in trouble." She motioned toward the door of the bus, daring them not to get on. They both hung their heads and marched on.

"Ta-ta, Red!"

"Farewell, Lily-flower!" They called.

"See ya soon, Lils! Have more fun over Christmas than I will." Hestia waved solemnly as she too boarded the bus. A faint call of, "I hope you have money!" Was audible before the doors squeaked shut and the bus disappeared.

We waited in silence for my mother to show up.

The rest of holiday was no doubt, as bad as any holiday could be. I sat in my room fuming all day about my ruined social life, while Lily knocked on my door constantly, trying to apologize. I didn't want an apology. I just wanted her to disappear.

Christmas came and went. Lily gave me a present that I didn't bother to open. I gave her a pinecone.

Finally, the day came for her to go back to her freaky school. It was one day before I was due to begin school again, so I was forced to come along to the platform with the rest of my family. All through the car ride, I was forced to listen to Lily talk about how she was so excited to see her friends again, and how when she got back to school, she would step off the train and go straight up to her dormitory and meet with her friends, so they could go down to dinner together, and then after dinner, they would go down to the kitchens and pick up a few snacks to bring back up to their room and they would talk all night, blah, blah, blah. When I finally saw her mane of shining red hair go through the wall, all I can say is that I felt an enormous sense of relief. Of course, she was greeted by about a hundred people first, and walked through with a girl on either side of her. I didn't know who they were, but they seemed to know each other really well, so I assumed that they shared a dormitory.

I arrived at school the next day wearing my school uniform the way I normally did. Skirt rolled up as short as it could be and still be called a skirt, several buttons unbuttoned on my white uniform shirt, and my tie hung loosely around my neck. I walked to my locker, unpacked my books, and then went to go find my friends.

Conveniently enough, they all had lockers in the same hallway on the other side of the building. It took a while for me to fight my way through the crowd of restless children to get there. I had to go through almost every part of the school on my way, so it was never a surprise when I saw someone else I knew and stopped to talk. But today, for the first time in a while, someone actually stopped me.

Ian Ivey. Standing at his sides were his best mates, Martin and Tyler.

"Petunia!" His familiar voice called. I turned around to see them walking briskly toward me. I put on what I hoped was a delighted smile.

"Ian! Martin! Tyler! How are you guys?"

"Wonderful! What's not to like?" Martin asked. He was always so upbeat and positive. It was really nice to be around them, but I wondered what they wanted. I doubted the reason they stopped me was just to talk.

"The dance was so much fun!" Tyler told me. I was starting to see where they were going with this.

"I hadn't seen your sister in so long!" Ian laughed.

I didn't want to be rude, so I imagined what my mother would say. "Well, that school was a really great opportunity for her. She seems to love it!" The words were sour coming out of my mouth.

"Yeah, it seems like a really great place! I wish I went to boarding school. That would be great! I've always been a big fan of early morning pranking. That firework story was great! I wish I had that much fun!" Martin looked rather dreamy.

"Anyway… Lily's changed a lot since I last saw her."

That made me mad. "Not really." I told him. "No one paid any attention to her now, but when no one knew it was her and she had a fresh start, every one suddenly thinks she so great." I ranted.

Tyler ignored me. "Her friend Hestia was pretty cool too. I've always been a big fan of dark hair."

I eyed the strands of beige hair that were falling in my eyes. "She doesn't like me," I stated.

It was Ian's turn to ignore me now. "Well, we were just wondering if there was any way to get in touch with them at school. It was really nice talking with them, and we'd like to do it more often."

I actually hadn't been expecting him to say that. I should have seen it coming, but I didn't. It caught me off guard, and anger flared up inside me. So just seeing her once wasn't enough? He had to actually correspond with her now? Why wasn't I good enough? Just because I wasn't pretty enough didn't mean I wasn't cool. If those boys would ever bother to talk to me, they would see that I was just as cool, if not cooler than my pathetic, freaky little sister and her best friend. They even liked that girl Marlene better than me, and they'd never even met her! I closed my eyes, and when I opened them, Ian looked confused, and slightly nervous. I guess I wasn't doing such a good job of keeping my face indifferent.

"Petunia? Is there any way to get in touch with Lily? Maybe an address, or a telephone number I could call to talk to her?"

"There's no phone." I told him sharply. "There's no way you can call her. The phones there are just for emergencies. You can write to her, but I don't know the address. If it's really that important to you, you can ask my parents to forward letters for you, but I doubt you would want my parents all over your letters." With that, I turned and stormed away, leaving the boys feeling confused and awkward in the middle of the hallway.

When I finally got to my destination hallway, I could see them all down at the far end, clustered around Ruth's locker. I made my way over and pushed my way into the circle between Charlene and Yvonne. Ruth ignored me. I had expected as much.

Mixing with Lily's world never ended well for me. I couldn't believe how she had done it! She had just waltzed in for a little over an hour, and stolen my spotlight! Even if I wasn't happy, it was always better in the normal world. So I did what I always did. I threw myself into my friends' conversation, and tried to forget all about my least favorite red-head. But she would always be there. Being bound by blood, she was one of those things I would just have to live with. But I couldn't. Living half way in a world that you longed so much to be in was torture. And my friends would never even know. They couldn't know. And so, I was doomed to spend the rest of my life locked up in my own head, reminiscing about my stolen spotlight.

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><p><strong>AN: So? Love it? Hate it? All thoughts appreciated. Nothing is more valuable to an aspiring writer than feedback. Just one review would make my new year, so please help me out here. Anyway, speaking of new years, crack out the bubbly and have a great one yourself! 2012 is gonna be good. I can feel it. Hope you can too. Thanks so much for reading!<strong>

**~Kipler**


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